After our plans for meeting up with Becky and Dave were made, I decided to check out Fodor's. It had precious little to say to psych us up for Andorra....just a small insert which mentioned skiing (too early in the season), hiking (too late in our season...if you get my drift) and shopping...not on our list (no pun intended). And...while the weather.com forecast was perfect (80's and sunny), the local Andorra forecast was less than perfect (60's with scattered showers). So....here we are. What to do? Dave and Becky, Ken and I walked around town after we settled in...and we weren't impressed. It was a small city, with not much charming about it. We had been there 13 years ago...but it was not the same place. The infrastructure was totally re-done...to be modern, but not charming, and we could have been in any small city in the world.

Saturday morning, we discussed options: we could blow the joint, so to speak, and go elsewhere, but Ken and I had already pre-paid the hotel on Expedia. (Hint to Moonbeamers: it's often better to call the hotel directly and negotiate the same price. You don't pre-pay...and if you want to jump ship, you only pay for your time there.) So, since we were already in for 2 days at the hotel, we decided to optimize the experience. We had a discussion with the adorable, enthusiastic, young concierge about what we should do. She suggested visiting the old city in town....and then driving up to the mountains (very close) to visit (as she described them) the beautiful towns of Ordino and Canillo.

The four of us, 3 pilots (one who flies 777's) and a lawyer/shopper extraordinaire set out to find the old town. Somehow, we four geniuses took a few wrong turns and totally missed finding the old town, despite signs everywhere....but did end up in the shopping district (Hmmmmmm...how did that happen, Becky?) and ended up buying things we didn't know we needed but absolutely had to have. They really have some wonderful shops with unique and interesting items.

Later, driving up into the mountains was spectacular. Obviously, Andorra needs better PR for the travel guides. The mountains, valleys, and views of the small towns were breathtaking. Even though the small towns have recent development, the architecture is charming and there are beautiful, colorful flowers everywhere...in every window, on every terrace. What a find!.

We (Dave) drove up to the top of the mountain which was gorgeous...and then took the mountain road down to the other side to the town of Canillo. It would be hard to find a more charming town. Probably because of the hordes during ski season, the town has many inexpensive parking garages...which lowers the 'car/parking in small town' stress level significantly. We found a wonderful creperie. The owner/server (Eric) was delightful. At one point, a woman was seated with her two pups. Eric went over and gave each pooch a piece of ham. Captain Ken, (never to miss a moment) did an imitation of the pooches to Eric. In a minute, Eric came out with a shot glass of homemade chocolate sauce for our Captain. How cute was that!!!! Our meals were superb, topped off with (I think) 4 gratis glasses of wine, interesting conversation, and shot glasses (gratis) of guava juice ("NO ALCOHOL" said Eric,) since he knew we had to drive back down the mountain.

Back at the hotel, Captain had his 2 hour birthday massage, while Dave, Becky and I decided to nail down this 'old city' experience. It seemed like a must-do. We did. It was OK. That's all I have to say.

So.... The moral of this story is....sometimes you just can't try to over manage. You just have to lay back and go with the flow...which we all know, anyway.